Pregnancy Journal - 30 Weeks

Pregnancy Journal - 30 Weeks

How Far Along? 30 Weeks (Lets not even talk about this picture...I'm tired)

Size of Baby: Butternut Squash - 17 inches and 3.1 lbs

Gender: Sweet girl!

Maternity Clothes: This warm spring weather and internal heater of mine has left me lacking in the clothing department - pants are just not fun to wear when it's this warm out. I've been shopping around for a few comfy, casual dresses that could possibly be used for nursing/after baby too. Hoping Motherhood Maternity will have what I need this weekend!

Best Moment This Week: A good dr. appt, hb holding at 143 and measuring right on. We go every 2 weeks now and I love that. We celebrated our 3 year anniversary on Wednesday with food and cake reminiscent of our reception food - I can't believe it's been 3 wonderful years with my love! I was also offered a contract renewal for my current teaching position so that was great!

Nursery: No new developments but I am still planning to post an update soon! Her closet continues to fill up with adorable clothes...

...two of my absolute favorites from my mom. I can't wait for her to wear these!
Movement: Oh yes and they're getting stronger everyday! Her quarters are getting tight and I feel every little wiggle. So sweet!

Cravings: Cinnamon Applesauce, Baked Cheetos and Strawberries

Symptoms: Growing belly (the comments about how small I am are not as frequent...ha!), LOTS of pee breaks, shortness of breath and some aches and pains when she stays in one spot for too long.  

Sleep: I'm still sleeping great but definitely up at least 2-3 times a night to pee.

What I Miss: On Fridays, we're allowed to wear jeans with a school t-shirt...after three years at my particular school, I've built a pretty spectacular collection of spirit shirts, unfortunately only 2 fit at the moment. :( Jeans days just aren't quite the same these days.

Looking Forward to: Our car seat class/installation, a visit from my brother-in-law and our next dr appt in just over a week!

Pregnancy Journal - 29 Weeks

Pregnancy Journal - 29 Weeks

How Far Along? 29 Weeks

Size of Baby: Small Cabbage - 17 inches and 2.9 lbs

Gender: Girl!

Maternity Clothes: Just shopping for postpartum clothes and some comfy, nursing pajamas now.

Best Moment This Week: Spring Break! Seriously, it's been so nice to get some things, baby and non-baby related, knocked off the list on my last break before baby! We also had a great time at our first baby class, looking forward to part 2 on Saturday! 

Nursery: Chris and I hung Zoey's artwork and floating shelves this weekend! The room is nearly complete, we just need all the nifty baby items to put in it and definitely more clothes. :) Update coming soon.

Movement: Lots and lots! I swear I felt either fingers or toes the other night when she moved...it was awesome. She is one active little girl and I love it. 

Cravings: Cinnamon Rolls and fruit :) Luckily, I can eat all of that (in moderation, of course) and not worry.

Symptoms: Growing belly, aches and pains when I sleep on one side for more than a few hours and LOTS of pee breaks!

Sleep: I'm still sleeping great! A lot of women complained of not sleeping well in the baby class and I have no idea what they're talking about. Feeling fortunate.

What I Miss: Fitting into regular clothes...I'm dying to shop the new spring trends and I definitely can't for a few more months!

Looking Forward to: The rest of spring break (lots of friend and family time), My last monthly prenatal appointment next week (we go every 2 weeks from here on out), our anniversary AND my baby shower, coming up next month! The countdown is on (75ish days) and there is plenty to keep me busy!

Black Bean Veggie Burgers

Oh my word...I finally got up the energy to make this recipe for Black Bean Veggie Burgers and they are SO GOOD. I had to stop by and share this delicious recipe with you guys.

{via}

The recipe comes from {Tastes Better From Scratch}. I changed it up every so slightly...

Ingredients: 

For the Burger:
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1/2 green bell pepper 
1/2 small red onion 
2 tsp minced garlic
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup Panko bread crumbs 
1 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin 

For the Chipotle Mayo Sauce: 
1 cup mayonnaise
2 chipotle Chilies in adobo sauce
1 Tbsp adobo sauce
Juice of half a lime
 

For the Burger:
Drain the liquid from the black beans, rinse and dry. Coarsely chop the bell pepper and onion and place in a food processor, along with the garlic, and process until finely chopped. Strain mixture to remove excess water.

Put black beans in a bowl and mash well with a fork. Add the vegetable mixture and mix in the chili powder and cumin. Add the beaten egg and bread crumbs, mix well.  Form mixture into 4 patties. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes on each side.

For the Mayo:

Add all ingredients to the food processor and process until well blended.

Please visit {Tastes Better From Scratch} for the full and original recipe. I basically removed the salt and pepper (it didn't need it in my opinion) and lessened the cumin (my pregnant self is not a fan of cumin but it does add flavor).

The mayo is superb and compliments the burger so well! I ate the burger on a whole grain sandwich thin w/ just the mayo and it was perfect. You could add all sorts of fixin's though, if you like.

Enjoy and be sure to check out {Tastes Better From Scratch} - I will definitely be trying more of her amazing recipes!

Pregnancy Journal - 28 Weeks

                                            Pregnancy Journal - 28 Weeks

How Far Along? 28 Weeks - 3rd Trimester!!

Size of Baby: Head of Cauliflower - 16 inches and 2.5 oz

Gender: Sweet girl, at least we hope since her room is super girly!

Maternity Clothes: Just starting to look for post-pregnancy clothing and nursing stuff. I'm all set on maternity clothes!

Best Moment This Week: I found out on Friday that I passed my 3-hour glucose test with flying colors!! I may have gone a tad overboard with sweets - time to get back to the gym. I also got a bonus day off due to the crazy weather on Monday. Much needed.

Nursery: We had a few more prints made and framed them this weekend. We just need to hang everything up and we're nearly finished! I'll post a complete update soon.

Movement: Day and night! She's such a fun little baby! I like to guess what body parts she's sticking out, it's super entertaining and very distracting. She also gets the hiccups every night around 7, poor baby.

Cravings: Lemonade and everything sweet. I need to reel that in a notch...I feel a major weight gain coming at my next appointment.

Symptoms: The exhaustion has returned but that could be a sign that Spring Break just needs to happen.

Sleep: Starting to get aches and pains if I sleep on one side too long. This leads to more tossing and turning and less sleep but I'm still getting a decent amount so I won't complain yet.

What I Miss: Nothing comes to mind!

Looking Forward To: Spring Break, our first birthing class on Saturday, my last 4 week appointment and our anniversary!

Friday Favs

Another week down AND it's the end of February! I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend, hanging out with friends, and picking up our glider!!! Pics to come :) It's going to be a great weekend!

1. Expectant Mom's Parking

After a long morning of fasting and being poked for the 3-hour glucose screening, I stopped by Kroger to grab a few things (mostly desserts as my last hoorah or celebration, depending on the news). I was able to park in Kroger's expectant mom's parking and not only was it exciting but it was extremely appreciated that day. It's the little things.

2. eBay Maternity Shopping

I blogged all about my Maternity clothes {here} but this particular purchase is by far my favorite and I thought it was so sweet of the girl I purchased this from to include a personal note. People are great!

3. Shopping for Three

I had to take the entire day off for my glucose screening so I took advantage that afternoon and spent some time shopping at Kohls. I picked up some new black flats for me, a couple pairs of shorts for Chris and a little dress for Zoey! It's so fun to think that I get to include her in my family shopping from now on. :)

4. Nursery Curtains

I blogged a Nursery Update {here} but I am just so in love with how these curtains turned out that I have to add them to my five. It's not often that things turn out exactly the way I picture them in my head. I really love visiting her nursery now that it's more complete - it's so peaceful.

5. Our Baby Monitor

We received the {baby monitor} off our registry from Chris's parents last weekend! This was an item we researched quite heavily and felt was super important since the nursery is upstairs and our room is downstairs. After playing around with it, at this point and time, I definitely give it 5 stars. It has excellent signal throughout the house, 2-way talking, reads the temperature of the room, can pan and tilt AND play lullabies. It's really going to give this crazy worrier some peace of mind once our baby girl is here.

Have a super weekend everyone!

                 Linking up with a few of my favs - April, Christina, Darcy & Natasha!

Pregnancy Journal - 27 Weeks

Pregnancy Journal - 27 Weeks

How Far Along? 27 Weeks - Last week of my second trimester and a 95% survival rate at this point!

Size of Baby: Cucumber - 14.8 inches and 2.22 lbs

Gender: Sweet baby girl!

Maternity Clothes: I just blogged about some of my maternity clothes {here}! Check it out.

Best Moment This Week: Getting the call that our glider is in at Buy Buy Baby! It's the last major piece of furniture missing from Zoey's room and it's going to add so much to the look of everything. I am SO excited to go pick it up! I would love to add to this that I passed my 3-hour glucose test but they are taking their sweet time with the results so I haven't heard yet. :( 

Nursery: I also just blogged about our nursery update {here}! More progress on decor and storage coming soon.

Movement: All day, everyday! I'm watching my stomach move dramatically as I type! I'm not complaining :) It's starting to feel like a real little human is in there.

Cravings: Nothing major, still enjoying fruit and veggies a lot. Stupid sweets are still an ever present craving too.

Symptoms: Growing belly. I also tested Anemic at my last appointment (easily fixed with an iron supplement, I can tell such a difference in my energy level now too)

Sleep: Sleeping awesome but the 2 am potty breaks are definitely back! I'm also having really vivid, upsetting dreams.

What I Miss: Nothing comes to mind!

Looking Forward to: Spending another weekend with my handsome husband, March, Spring Break and our 3 year anniversary! Also looking forward to getting those results from my glucose test - it's taking forever and I just want to know one way or the other!

Nursery Update

After purchasing this incredibly precious and perfect fabric for Zoey's room a few weekends ago...

...I finally got the gumption to make her crib skirt (my very first attempt at one) and curtains!

For the crib skirt, I followed these relatively simple instructions from Oleander and Palm and used an old bed sheet as my base fabric. 

I love how it turned out, however, for those of you with the Sundvik Crib from Ikea there's really no need to go through all this trouble. I could've easily hung a hemmed panel of fabric from the front side of the crib and it would've looked the same! The ends of the crib are solid and the back of the crib is up against the wall so only 1 out of the 4 panels actually shows. Lesson learned for next time! I'm still pleased with how it turned out!

For the curtains, I purchased the gray Vivans from Ikea, 2 panels for $9.99 and hacked them to make these custom curtains to match the crib skirt.

I measured the overall length I wanted the curtains to be and cut off that amount from the Ikea curtains + the length of my butterfly fabric. Then, I hemmed my fabric and sewed it to the curtain. 

Chris suggested we add a little of the extra fabric to the top to tie it all together. I loved the idea. :) To do this, I just ironed a hem on a small piece of fabric and sewed it close to the top of the curtains. 

I'm incredibly happy with how these turned out and they were so easy! Hacking an already made curtain helps a lot.

Zoey's Nursery is definitely coming along nicely! We now get to focus on decor for the walls and all those fun and very necessary baby items (like diapers and wipes!). More Nursery updates to come!